What's wrong with our media?

One thing that struck me now that the health care reform bill has been passed is the news reports that lay out in fairly simple detail exactly what the passage of the bill means. Nowhere are reports of death panels pulling the plug on grandam, or abortion clinics opening up in mini-malls, or brown shirts smashing their way into insurance company headquarters. Suddenly, the media know exactly what the passage of this bill means to our citizens and our economy. We are getting the objective truth about the bill and its effects.
Which makes me wonder why, for the past year, news outlets have been publishing, without correction, the wildest sort of fear mongering, misinformation, and often outright lies. The bill passes and the very next day, they can tell us what the bill REALLY does and does not do.
Why were they not saying so before? This is a big problem and one that goes to credibility. If today, Wolf Blitzer can tell you what the bill does, ...

... why has he not challenged the rhetoric up until Sunday. Either he has learned an awful lot in the last few hours or he did not have the integrity to give us the objective truth. Either way, we are either getting our news from the ignorant or by amoral promulgation of misinformation. I am not singling out Blitzer here. Nearly every media outlet from cable channels, newspapers, and radio have done the same thing. Shameful and sad are what come to my mind.
Have you noticed the same thing? Tell us in comments.
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Our public discourse again (sigh)

Some people around the country are raising concerns about a presentation that the President is going to make to schoolchildren. The speech is to urge kids to stay in school and to work hard at their studies. Some conservative activists and Republican operatives are trying to portray that as some sort of insidious brainwashing to corrupt our youth.
I think this episode illustrates what Congressman Frank said at the forum in Dartmouth a few weeks ago. It is difficult to be ready to respond to these assertions because you can't reasonably anticipate them. Who would have thought that voluntary end of life discussion with your doctor would turn into "death panels". Likewise, how do you prepare to answer charges that urging kids to do well in school translates to creeping socialism. I think you can't prepare.
That said, I think that tristero over at Hullaballo has a correctly calibrated response in this quote,

"Highly-paid Republican operatives are behind the ludicrous accusation that the President of the United States intends to indoctrinate America's children in socialism when he talks to them on Tuesday about the importance of working hard in school. In their ridiculous efforts to bamboozle Americans, Republicans once again are perpetuating the dangerously divisive and unserious politics of the last Republican presidency, a presidency marked by a nearly perfect storm of disasters - from an unnecessary war in Iraq to a financial meltdown to the Republican administration's thoroughly incompetent response to Hurricane Katrina. "

The Department of Education response ...

...was more subdued,

“This isn’t a policy speech,” said Sandra Abrevaya, a spokeswoman for the Department of Education. “It’s designed to encourage kids to stay in school. The choice on whether to show the speech to students is entirely in the hands of each school. This is absolutely voluntary.”

Tristero has treated the fake controversy as it should be treated. with contempt. I guess the Education Department thinks they are dealing with valid concerns or serious people. They are not. This is a completely contemptible effort by conservatives and Republicans to spread fear and question the legitimacy of our institutions. Beyond sad that they are reduced to ever more hideous and disgusting ploys to try to inspire fear in people rather than work together to better the country.
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How about some progressive talk radio.

WWZN AM1510 is on the air from 6Am to 7Pm with talk radio from a progressive viewpoint. The Blue Mass Group blog post about it is here. Don't know if...

... the signal will reach to South Coast. I doubt it. Try it on your dial and see. Let us know if you can hear them.
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Are newspapers going to disappear?

I can't say I am enamored of the changes that have been made to the Standard Times recently. Not much in news in there anymore. Tough to have much when you only have a handful of reporters to generate copy. Still, it is the best and often only source of news on local happenings. The newspapers all over the country are going broke. The Boston Globe and Philadelphia Inquirer may soon cease to exist. The trouble is that advertising revenue is drying up, perhaps being shifted to websites and newer technologies. How will we have an informed electorate if the fourth estate is not there to tell us ...

...what our government and elected officials are doing? As much as I complain about the media, they serve a vital function in a democracy. I don't know what the answer is, what do you think?
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